well here is a start!

[Memo]

After that waterless 6 month, I went to lake to sea if I could find some pike.. The water was 16C and visiblity was about 2m...

[Alison]

I see they've been teaching you how to shoot straight in the army
Nice looking catch, they have sharp teeth dont they?

[Murat]

Very nice mate,

I will show you mines as soon as i got them from deep-freez to fry

[Memo]

Alison pikes really have some sharp teeth and they have many of them I've seen some huge ones earlier in that lake but no luck for today...

[Erik]

We hunt these and they get very big. I regularly get 2 kilo fish, but my buddy just got a 5 kilo. I have seen pics of 20 kilo Pike up here that are over a metre long. They are the apex predator and are voracious, even eating birds. "Freshwater Barracuda" would be a good name. They fight hard too.
Cheers and happy hunting,
Erik Y.

[Memo]

yes my buddy cought an 11kg one a month ago and I've seen pics of a 18k one cought by line... I have to spare some more time for this lake!

[feign]

Here is a pic of the 5 kilo pike I shot last week Erik had mentioned. The picture of the open mouth doesn't really show very well the number of small sharp teeth these guys have. Also, both the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the entire mouth inside & along the gill ridges as well are covered by thousands of small spikes kind of like sharp velcro.... be careful handling

[feign]

little fishy point of no return

[Oldsarge]

Anglers after pike have to use wire leaders, otherwise they just bite through monofiliment. Then, when you pull up the wire leader to release the fish, the damned thing comes up the leader and bites you! After a week of pike fishing (394 pike/ 2 men in 5 days) I came back with all my left fingers in bandages. BTW, they are the best tasting fish in fresh water, except for char. I especially recommend a beer reduction sauce with a bit of Dijon mustard to pour over the pike fillets. Mmmmmm-mmm!

[feign]

Sarge,

Your description of the angling of pike would explain why 2 weeks ago I saw a pike with both a jig and a spoon bait hooked in its mouth. I agree about the pike...good eating.

[shaneshac]

Congratulations on your come back memo

Better get used to that 16 degree water as it dont get much warmer over here

Did you see any of those big carp?

[Mikko]

We had Nordic/baltic Sea Champs here in Finland last week.
Comp was held on island of Korppoo which is probably one of the best spots in the world for pike.

I managed to land one close to 5kg's and three ranging from 2-3.5kgs...this was prior to the comp(I was not competing).
During the competition the champion Matti Pyykkö landed a pike of 8,8kg's!!! On top of this one danish bloke nailed a 8,? specimen.

That 8.8kg monster has REALLY sharp teeth that are 2cm long!!!
This combined with their territorial nature makes them a worthy opponent in the shallows.

So....if you like shooting pike...come over.:-)

Cheers,
Mikko

[Amphibious]

used to catch 100's of those things every summer when I lived in Ontario. very fun on a fly rod. nice fish Memo! never did get around to eating one - let me know how they taste!

[Memo]

Shane, there was no sign of the huge carps.. and honestly I didnt look for them in that trip..

Colin, well if they are prepared properly they taste awesome! We normally get the fish, fillet it, clean the spikes, and cut it as strips of 2cm wide. After that we put it into bear + mineral water and wait for 2 hours or so in the fridge and at the last step, we put them into egg, cover them with corn flour and deep fry it!! They taste awesome especially with garlic souce

[Oldsarge]

Originally posted by Memo
Colin, well if they are prepared properly they taste awesome! We normally get the fish, fillet it, clean the spikes, and cut it as strips of 2cm wide. After that we put it into bear + mineral water and wait for 2 hours or so in the fridge and at the last step, we put them into egg, cover them with corn flour and deep fry it!! They taste awesome especially with garlic souce

With garlic sauce? What a concept! Ooooo . . . and I am supposed to go bear hunting at a cabin on a lake full of pike next August. Now the waiting will be even worse!